Lost in Transit
by lanalucy
Summary: Prompt: What if Kara had failed Zak? This story now has a sequel, either on AO3 or livejournal (AO3 is much easier navigation), which has the honor of being the longest thing I've ever written in my life, and being the fluffiest. Its rating is at least M, so fair warning. I'd be delighted if this ficlet made you want to read more.


The Old Man had invited her to dinner. Just her. They hadn't done this at all since the war started, and though she was looking forward to it, she was also wary. His voice had been extraordinarily gentle when he'd stopped her in the corridor to ask her, and she just didn't know what to make of that.

After dinner, what there was of it, the Old Man poured some Ambrosia - the real stuff - and handed her a glass. She barely resisted gulping it down. Her stomach was in knots.

"Kara?" There was that tone again, like if he spoke the wrong way, she'd break.

"Sir?"

"When the Cylons attacked the Colonies and we were fleeing, there were regular duties people had that got pushed aside in favor of survival. Now that things have calmed down to some extent, we're reintegrating those tasks back into regular workloads."

"I don't understand, Sir. Do you need me to do something I'm not doing?"

He glanced at her, his craggy face full of something indefinable. "No, Kara, it's not that. One of the things left undone has been paperwork update packets in the computer - personnel records, medical records, vital statistics, that sort of thing. We've got new people learning to parse the information in those packets for distribution to the appropriate commanding officers."

"OK." She trailed it out slowly. "I'm sorry, Sir. What does any of this have to do with me?" She wasn't quite testy with him, but her confusion was evident in the tone of her voice.

The Old Man sighed deeply. "There were updates to your personnel and medical records, Kara, your next of kin."

"How would there be updates to my next of kin? I've never had anyone to...put...down." She slowly stopped speaking and looked away from him.

"When I asked you the day we met if you and Zak had gotten engaged, you said yes, but you never told me that you two had actually gotten married. Why not?"

"I didn't see the point, Sir. Your son was dead. Zak and I had already decided that we weren't going to tell anyone, particularly at Flight School, until after he'd passed Basic Flight and I wasn't his instructor anymore. Then he didn't pass and that was a doozy of a fight. Then he died, and I was left wondering if his last thoughts were of his wife flunking him out of Basic Flight, wondering if we'd have stayed married for long if he'd still been alive. Gods, he was so angry with me."

Bill's face had grown incredulous as she spoke. "What do you mean, you failed him? He was in his Viper when he crashed. He obviously passed."

Kara shook her head but refused to look at him. "I loved Zak, but he just didn't have a feel for the bird. I gave him extra training on the sims, one-on-one time nearly every day, but he still missed three of the benchmarks during the test. I had no choice but to fail him. Someone higher up overrode my decision - told me that there was no way Husker's kid couldn't fly a Viper, told me to change my grade. I refused, so somebody changed it for me. Zak already knew, though, and like I said, it was a hell of a fight. He still hadn't forgiven me when he died."

"Kara..." Bill grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him into a sideways hug. "I wish I'd known this."

"What difference would it have made, Sir? Zak was dead, and knowing you had a daughter-in-law you'd never met, who happened to be your son's Flight Instructor? How would that have changed anything? If they'd listened to me, if Zak had listened to me, he could have switched to Raptors. He was actually really good with the buses, but he was Husker's kid, so it had to be Vipers. Even if he'd wanted to, they wouldn't have let him switch."

"Nothing we can do about it now, and if he'd been flying Raptors, there's no telling where he'd have been based. He might still be dead anyway, Kara."

Her voice broke a little as she said, "But maybe he wouldn't have died hating me." She looked up at him, surprised and hurt, when he snorted.

"Kara, you pissed him off. You do seem to have that knack with both my boys. He didn't hate you, though. Another few days and you probably could have gotten him drunk and dragged him off to bed. He'd have gotten over it then."

"Sir!"

He laughed heartily at her shock. "I was young once. And it worked for his mother. Every time I was mad at her."

Later, when someone had come to collect the dishes from dinner, and Bill and Kara were saying good night, he pulled her into an unexpectedly tight hug. "Got one more thing to ask, Kara. You've always been an Adama to me, so it won't change anything between us, no matter what you answer. Do you want to change your name? Is that something you would have done if he'd lived?"

She hugged him back and shrugged, spoke into his chest. "Of all the things we talked about, that's one thing we didn't. I think Zak assumed that I would want to keep my own name." She stepped back, swiped self-consciously at her face and asked, "Can I think about it?"

He pushed the hatch open and stepped forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. "Take all the time you need. Now, go see how badly you can beat somebody at Triad, why don't you?"

Her smile was only a little forced. "Aye, Sir. Good night, Sir."

He waved and watched her walk off. As he shut the hatch, he decided it was time to act like any normal father and interfere in his daughter's life. _Need a strategy meeting._ He picked up the phone. "Dee, put me through to the President, please."


End file.
